


Palentine's Day

by spiritoftruthandlies



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Valentine's Day, aromantic Enjolras, queer platonic relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 16:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6016933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiritoftruthandlies/pseuds/spiritoftruthandlies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the first time, Enjolras spends Valentine's Day with Grantaire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Palentine's Day

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to camelbearduck for being my beta!

It was a thing that had been happening since middle school, when dating suddenly became a thing and people started finding him attractive. Every Valentine’s Day—or the Friday before when it fell on a weekend—his locker would be stuffed with Valentines by the end of last period. He wasn’t even sure how they all got in there, considering several were too big to fit through the slots at the top. Ever since it started, he had had a tradition of gathering them all and sorting through them with Combeferre and Courfeyrac, pitching cards declaring love and divvying up whatever sweets were left. It was how he coped with the “most romantic day of the year” when he had no interest in romantic relationships. But this year, he would be dealing with the pile of Valentines alone since Combeferre and Courfeyrac had gotten together earlier in the school year. They had apologized profusely for ditching him, but they wanted to have the rest of the day to themselves.

Enjolras sighed and pulled out several pillowcases from his backpack. He started spinning the combination on his locker when someone quite suddenly said, “Hey,” right in his ear.

He jumped and turned around to find Grantaire standing there, grinning. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry.” Grantaire’s smile waned into something shyer.

“What’re you here for?” He asked curiously.

“Well, I heard ’Ferre and Courf ditched you, so… I thought I’d help instead. ‘Cause, you know… I didn’t know how bad it’d be if you actually had to do this by yourself.”

Enjolras blinked. It wasn’t odd that his other friends knew about his Valentine’s tradition—it wasn’t exactly a secret—but he was a bit surprised that Grantaire was willing to help him out. “Ok. Hold one of these open while I dump this stuff in.” Grantaire nodded and grabbed a pillowcase. Enjolras turned back to his locker and finally opened it, letting a few of the Valentines tumble to the floor.

Grantaire held open the pillowcase while Enjolras shoved handfuls of Valentines in. This year they filled two and a half pillowcases, mostly because of some large gifts—several boxes of chocolate and a couple teddy bears. The last Valentine fluttered to the ground, and Grantaire reached to put it with the last of the lot while Enjolras finally could gather the things he would need to complete the weekend’s homework. He put his books in his backpack along with the pillowcases he hadn’t needed. Then he kicked his locker shut and picked up one of the bulging pillowcases. Grantaire took the other two and followed him out to his car.

They put the pillowcases in the trunk and got in the car. Enjolras started the engine and said, “Don’t worry about this being awkward or anything. My parents left last night for a romantic getaway, so there’s no one else in the house.”

Grantaire shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind anyway.” Enjolras smiled as he backed out of his parking space. Grantaire turned on the radio before they got out of the parking lot. They sang along to the music the whole way to Enjolras’ house.

Grantaire wasn’t the least bit surprised to learn that Enjolras’ house was huge. They entered the house through the garage where another car sat, covered by a tarp. They passed through the kitchen, with its gleaming stainless appliances and granite countertops, and came into the main room. The décor in the house was obscenely ornate, with sumptuous vases and other expensive finery on nearly every available surface and gorgeous paintings decorating the walls. Grantaire wanted to stare at everything in the room for a good hour, but Enjolras had turned and started up the steps to the second floor. Grantaire hurried after him instead.

The main room could be seen from the landing on the second floor, and Grantaire cast a longing look back down. Enjolras let out an exasperated sigh and tugged him down the hall. “You can stare at all the trappings of the upper class another time.”

“I promise I’ll take you up on that at some point. Mostly for the art.”

“I know. I just don’t want to do that today.”

Grantaire smiled sheepishly. “I know, I know. I just got distracted, that’s all.”

Enjolras tried to hide his fond smile and opened the door at the end of the hall. “C’mon, we’re gonna do this in here.”

Grantaire followed him into the bedroom. It was spacious enough that there was a king size bed and a huge, cluttered desk with room for so much more. There were two doors on the other side of the room, presumably leading to a walk-in closet and an en suite bathroom. The walls were decorated with a map of France and various flyers, most of which Grantaire recognized from Les Amis rallies.

Enjolras dropped his pillowcase on the floor and put his bag on his desk. Grantaire dropped his pillowcases next to Enjolras’ and then hesitantly leaned his bag against the desk. Enjolras simply smiled and sat down, gesturing for Grantaire to follow suit. They got comfortable on the floor and then dumped out all the Valentines.

Enjolras sighed. “Alright, so here’s how this works. First, all the cards are gonna go back in one of the pillowcases—ultimately they’ll be tossed in the recycle bin. If there’s something sugary taped on there, detach it and add it to the pile of sugary stuff. Then I’ll go through the pile of sugary stuff and pick out what I want, which honestly probably won’t be much of anything. After that, you have first dibs on everything else. Whatever’s leftover will be up for grabs at the next meeting, and anything left after that gets donated to food banks. I guess we’ll decide what to do with all these bears later…” He shoved them aside.

Grantaire smiled. “Sounds good to me.” He grabbed the closest pillowcase and started putting candy-less cards in it, making a point not to look at who sent them. Enjolras did the same. Occasionally Grantaire would burst into giggles when he read the cheesy one-liners on the Valentines that had candy attached inside. Enjolras let him read them out loud, even if every single one made him shake his head and roll his eyes. They were incredibly corny, but Grantaire absolutely loved them.

When they were done getting rid of all the cards, Enjolras started going through the sugary stuff. Grantaire decided to speed things along by grabbing whatever he wanted out of Enjolras’ reject pile. He also started a separate pile for the boxes of Sweethearts, since they both knew from experience that none of their friends would eat them  because of the awful taste (they would, however, entertain reading them to each other if they were bored).

As promised, Enjolras only took a few sugary things; not because he was being modest, but because there really wasn’t much he liked. Even after Grantaire took quite a bit, there was still enough left for all their friends to fight over. Enjolras got up and stashed his sweets in his nightstand, while Grantaire put his in his bag. They put the remaining sweets in one of the two other pillowcases, and put the Sweethearts in the third to be donated.

Enjolras stretched. “Finally done.”

“What about the bears?” Enjolras groaned in response, so Grantaire offered, “I could take them if you don’t want them.”

“Well, I mean, they’d be great to cuddle with… It’s just—”

Grantaire shook his head. “If their origin makes you uncomfortable, you shouldn’t keep them. Simple as that. I’ll take them or we can donate them so some less fortunate kid can have a stuffed animal.”

Enjolras sighed. “You’re right… I really do like the idea of donating them. But if you want to keep one, that’s your choice.”

“Nah, that’s alright. We can donate them. And if you really do want something to cuddle with, I can talk to our friends about pooling money to buy you one.”

Enjolras smiled a little. “That’d be really sweet.”

“Consider it done then. Can I hug you? You look like you need it.”

Enjolras hesitated and looked down at the floor. He didn’t want to make things awkward between them. Not when things were going so well. But Grantaire had asked, hadn’t he? He was clearly okay with it. Still, the blond replied shyly, “Please.”

Grantaire pulled him into a hug and murmured, “You know, if you want me to hug you, you can always ask.”

Enjolras melted into the hug and rested his head against Grantaire’s shoulder. “I know. I just… Sometimes I get caught up feeling broken because I’m aromantic, so I don’t think to ask. Usually I have ’Ferre and Courf here, and they just… know when I need it.”

“So I can just hug you if I think you need it?” Grantaire started carding his fingers through his golden curls.

“That’s the gist of it.”

He nodded, smiling fondly at him. “Okay.”

Enjolras was quiet for awhile, giving himself the chance to relax in Grantaire’s arms. Finally, he asked, “So, um, if you don’t have anything else you need to be doing, do you want to stay and watch some movies?”

Grantaire answered quickly, “I’d love to.” He realized almost as soon as the words were out that it might sound over-eager, so he tried to amend his statement, “I mean, I’d be happy to stay. No, that doesn’t sound any better. Crap.”

Enjolras laughed and finally extricated himself from Grantaire’s embrace, but held onto his hand. “It’s okay, I get what you mean. But there are some rules…”

Grantaire interrupted him to joke, “When are there not?”

Enjolras snorted. “You’re hilarious. This one’s simple, I promise. Just no romances or rom-coms. That’s it.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I get my fill of that with Jehan. And oddly enough, Bahorel.”

“Right. Oh, um, fair warning, I might get a little upset over unnecessary romantic subplots.”

Grantaire grinned. “I honestly wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“C’mon then.” Enjolras turned off the lights in his room and led the way down to the basement. He curled up on the big leather couch. “You can pick the first one. If you don’t find anything you like, we also have Netflix.”

Grantaire turned towards the large flat screen TV that took up the majority of the wall across from the couch. Beneath it was a modest shelving unit with a Blu-ray player and a cable box sitting on top, and a selection of movies on the shelves. He went over and browsed through the titles, searching for something good to watch. There were a few that caught his interest, but he wanted to start with something that wasn’t an action movie or a documentary. They just didn’t seem to be the right thing to watch at the moment. “How do you feel about Ghibli movies?”

“They’re great, but only on Netflix as DVDs.”

“Agh!” Grantaire made a face. “I wanted to watch Spirited Away or something.”

“I should really buy copies of them all.”

“You should. What about Bambi? Or The Land Before Time?”

“Let’s see if they’re on Netflix.” Enjolras turned the TV and the Blu-ray on. Once the Blu-ray started up, he got on Netflix and searched for Bambi. “DVD only.”

Grantaire groaned.

He searched for The Land Before Time next. “DVD. Every. Last. One.”

“Why?! There’s gotta be _something_ that isn’t DVD only!”

“I think most Disney movies aren’t. And there are a few that don’t have romance as the main plot.”

“Ooh! What about Brave?”

“That’s a great one!” Enjolras searched for it. “Aaaaand that’s also a no.”

“Ok, how about a comedy? The Emperor’s New Groove?”

“If it’s available to stream.” He searched for it. “ _Finally_ something’s not DVD only!”

Grantaire grinned. “Put it on then!”

Enjolras clicked play. Grantaire settled down on the couch, leaving plenty of space between them. The blond frowned, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to make his friend uncomfortable. The brunet was already lost in the movie anyway, and maybe he would think cuddling while watching a movie was romantic. He didn’t want that, even if he did have the world’s biggest squish on Grantaire and actually wanted a queer platonic relationship with him. It was fine.

When the movie ended, just over an hour later, Enjolras asked, “Sorry I didn’t ask before, but do you want popcorn?”

“Popcorn would be great, thanks. It’s your turn to pick the movie. Do you want to pick before or after you make the popcorn?”

“I’d like to watch Oliver and Company, if that’s alright with you. It’s over in the shelf.”

“Aww, that’s a really cute one. You go make some popcorn, and I’ll get the movie queued up.”

He smiled and hurried upstairs. Grantaire went over to the shelves again and began searching for the movie. It didn’t take him long to find it and put it in the Blu-ray player. He flopped back down on the couch and checked his phone. He was surprised to see it was already past dinnertime. He checked his texts to make sure his parents weren’t looking for him—not that they cared much about him—and waited for Enjolras to return with the popcorn.

The blond came back downstairs with a huge bowl of popcorn and a sheepish smile on his face. “I didn’t know how much to make, so I decided more was better.” He settled down on the couch and put the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.

Grantaire smiled. “More _is_ better. I love popcorn. But maybe we should eat real food at some point.”

Enjolras shrugged. “I can’t cook much of anything.”

“Ah well. We’ll just indulge ourselves and eat naught but popcorn. This probably has to be our last movie anyway. As much as my parents don’t give a damn about me, they’ll probably start texting soon enough.”

“Okay.” He bit his lip. “Is it okay if… I lean on you?”

The brunet stared in silence for such a long time that Enjolras was scared he had ruined everything. Finally, Grantaire asked incredulously, “You want to?”

Enjolras nodded eagerly. “I really do. I liked it when you hugged me earlier, and I want to do that again.”

“Come here then.” He opened his arms wide. The blond didn’t hesitate to curl up against Grantaire, pillowing his head on his chest. He hesitantly slid his arms around Enjolras, afraid he might change his mind at any moment.

“You seem nervous,” Enjolras murmured, “Your heart is racing.”

Another silence fell between them as the brunet debated whether or not to confess. He opened and closed his mouth several times, still struggling with the right thing to say. Eventually, he settled on telling the truth. “I, um… I have a really big crush on you, Enjolras. I never said anything because I know you’re aro and romance makes you really uncomfortable. I’m okay with just being your friend. But today? Today has been really special because you and I don’t usually spend time together, just the two of us. And I’m scared you won’t want to do this again because of how I feel about you…”

Enjolras looked up at him. “I’m… glad you’re being honest with me. I do feel a little uneasy because you have a crush on me, but knowing you won’t act on it helps. If we’re being honest with each other and confessing our feelings, I should tell you I have a squish on you, and I really, really want to be your queer platonic partner. Maybe that’s too much though.”

“No! That’s… that’s really great. I’d like that a lot. I mean, obviously, you’re gonna have to establish your boundaries, but I’d… I’d be happy to be that.”

He smiled. “I’m glad. And as much as I hate Valentine’s Day, this has turned out to be the best one ever.”

“I agree. It’s the best because I spent it with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me over on tumblr at graniteaire


End file.
